

pdf files on a Mac, the file name will be spoken instead of the text you highlight. One workaround you may have to employ: Sometimes with.

On a PC, I recommend Natural Reader, available at : The same keyboard shortcut will stop the reading. Highlight the text, use your keyboard shortcut, and there you go. Choose Dictation and Speech and set up a keyboard shortcut. On a Mac, this is built into your System Preferences. There are a couple of ways to get your computer to read text out loud. If you’re distracted, you may not hear the error when it’s read. And the only way this method works is if you pay attention and read along as the computer is speaking the text.

Also, if you hear an error, stop the reading immediately and correct the error so you don’t forget where it was. I recommend reading aloud text a paragraph or two at a time. The errors that your brain might autocorrect as you are reading the text will often leap out when you hear your computer read it. Let your computer read your text out loud while you follow along. Reading text out loud has long been considered an effective proofreading method, and I’ve found an even more effective variation on that method. And a spellcheck won’t catch some of the most common typos: a missing word, a wrong word that’s spelled correctly or the right word that’s in the wrong place. Because we know what we mean to say, our brains often autocorrect for typos.

Proofreading is an ongoing challenge for most writers, especially when reviewing our own work.
